Raiga: The Monster from the Deep Sea (2009)

"Cover your belly button!"

Raiga: The Monster from the Deep was the second in the Raiga trilogy and arguably the best of the three. The actors weren't better, nor the sets, but the monster scenes were much improved.

The whole Raiga trilogy was low budget, super sale bargain bin quality. Despite its lack of finesse, story cohesion, and quality CGI, it was apparent how much the director loved this Kaiju. If you've ever seen the third one it leaves no doubt his determination to tell Raiga's story, however convoluted it was.

This Raiga had evolved to be able to walk on land, much to Asakusa's disappointment. The city was torn up not once, but twice in this movie.

The human story revolved around a widower and his three teenage daughters. He had two buddies and all were on the festival committee which is very important to remember when a monster is bent on destroying the town. This widower who hawked T-shirts was interested in a young woman and tried to hide it from his children who were all too aware of his feelings. Commander Kito, he of the eye-patch and deranged personality, led the defense forces. Between his efforts and Raiga's not much was left of Asakusa. All of the acting was over the top with unending mugging for the camera. How well you can stomach this kind of comedy may determine your enjoyment of this movie. For me, it didn't work.

The Bone Fish/Fish Born of the Devil/Dragon Killers made an appearance again, attacking people on boats and land. Raiga battled a sea monster in the opening scenes and later another Raiga. The lightning bolts and fire breath were more spectacular than in the first movie. Aside from the monsters, the rest of the CGI and miniatures were low quality, especially for 2009. The director made liberal use of red and green lights for both human and monster scenes.

Though I would never question the director's passion for Raiga, I might question his abilities for putting a seamless, coherent story together and understanding the film's identity. Was it a parody? Most probably. Was it a comedy? Your mileage/kilometerage may vary. Was it a horror? If you are super sensitive to bone fish tearing people's throats out-then maybe. Was it a Tokusatsu? Yes. An obvious rip-off of Godzilla, at least the Kaiju scenes, for the budget, were not bad.

The synopsis says the movie has something to do with global warming. There actually were a couple of lines wedged into the ending to propose that idea, very ham handedly. This movie was all over the place and hard to take seriously even for the genre. After the final battle much of the city had been destroyed but the main characters were shown laughing and frolicking on a hillside. That weird juxtaposition had me wanting Raiga to come back and mark his territory again right where they were, though I'm not sure they would be deserving of the rainbow.

If you are wanting to try the Raiga movies, this is the one to start with. It shows the best of the clips from the first Raiga and how much the monster development had improved. The third film was more of a fan service and only for the most devoted of Kaiju fans, actually, you'd really have to love Kaiju to attempt to watch this movie. It could almost be put into the it's so bad it's good category...almost.


11/13/22

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